Evidence of Individual Differences in the Temporal Ordering of Effects Between Media Emotion Regulation and Executive Functions in Early Childhood

Using media to calm children, a practice commonly referred to as media emotion regulation, has been found to be associated with the development of executive functions in early childhood. Understanding the temporal ordering of these processes, i.e. if media emotion regulation practices shape executive functions or vice versa, can help guide the way parents and practitioners support health development. However, individual variability in the temporal ordering of these processes is likely. This study uses longitudinal data to examine the temporal ordering of the association between media emotion regulation and two facets of executive functions, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility in a sample of N = 87 children from ages 2 ½ to 7 ½. We found evidence of individual variability in the temporal ordering of the association between media emotion regulation practices and both inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility. A Gaussian Mixture Model identified three broad classes of temporal ordering; Media Emotion Regulation Driven (7.00%), Bidirectional (87.36%), and Diverging Temporal Ordering (6.00%). Parent depression when children were 2 ½ years old was negatively associated with the probability of children being classified in the Bidirectional class but was positively associated with the probability of children being classified in the Media Emotion Regulation Driven class. Although unable to establish causality in the association between media emotion regulation and the development of executive functions, these findings highlight the likelihood of individual differences in the temporal ordering of these effects and the role of family context in shaping those developmental processes.